Monday, January 26, 2009

Bread, not bombs

So let me suggest a truly audacious hope for your administration: How about a five-year time-out on war -- unless, of course, there is a genuine threat to the nation?

McGovern suggests we use the war funds for a food program that would deliver the equivalent of free school lunches to every child in Afghanistan and other poverty stricken countries where hunger is as big, or bigger, a threat than terrorism. Maybe extend it to a food program for mothers along the lines of the WIC program here. He uses as an example his own agency that is currently doing such work and co-ordinating under the UN umbrella.

With the mere mention of the UN sending Republicans into apoplexy, I'm not sure Obama could sell the idea in that form, but the basic plan is sound. You can win a lot more hearts and minds with a belly full of food than you can with a bevy of bombs and bullets. And as a added bonus, we might be able to at least partly solve the long neglected problem of world hunger.